Thirteen Steps
by MayMarie
Summary: The best part of her day is coming home to him.


The best part of Casey MacDonald's day was coming home to him. It didn't matter how horrible her day was, the second she walked in through the door things were somehow just a little bit better. And it didn't matter how wonderful her day had been either. It all meant nothing to Casey if he wasn't there to celebrate her accomplishments with her . The best part of her day was coming home to Derek.

Today fell somewhere in between. It wasn't spectacularly great, but not necessarily terrible either. But it had definitely been a long and exhausting one, especially since she hadn't gotten much sleep the night before. That's what happened when you had two back-to-back exams first and second thing in the morning. She wasn't worried about either of her grades on the exams. Casey knew she'd answered most of the questions correctly, but neither of the tests had been a walk in the park. She'd put a lot of effort into making her essays the best answers they could be.

By lunchtime the energy drinks that she'd had for breakfast were starting to wear off, but she'd barely had time to grab a quick sandwich and coke before running off to the library to work on a group project. She'd scribbled notes furiously in her next two classes of the day and then it was back to the library for a tutoring session.

Casey liked tutoring, she really did. She loved seeing the looks on her students' faces when they finally understood the material. She liked being the one that made it click for them. But it was frustrating always feeling like she was playing catch up to whatever was covered in their classes. It exhausted her trying to figure out how the professors originally taught the material so she could choose a new way to introduce it to the student. Introduce it in a way that was more suited to their learning styles. She couldn't help feeling like she'd be doing a much better job once she was an actual teacher.

By the end of tutoring that day, she'd been ready to go home a crawl into bed even though it was barely dinnertime. But she'd agreed to pick up a shift at work for one of her friends who'd gotten sick, and she wasn't the type of girl who backed out of her commitments.

So here she was, walking home from work in the almost pitch black, the only light coming from the occasional street light illuminating a few square feet of sidewalk. She checked her watch for what felt like the millionth time and sighed in disappointment. It had only been ten minutes since she'd left work. She still had another fifteen minutes of her walk ahead of her. She couldn't wait to get home.

It wasn't that she didn't feel safe outside at night alone. She lived in a safe neighborhood and if someone happened to come along who didn't realize that, she had pepper spray on her key chain, which was currently gripped tightly between her fingers (she was comfortable outside, not careless after all). But the closer she was to home, the closer she was to the best part of her day.

The straps of her backpack were digging into her shoulders, weighted down with her textbooks for the day as well as the exhaustion that was setting in. Every step felt like she was dragging her feet. She shifted the backpack slightly and kept walking, praying the rain that had been threatening to fall for the past few hours would hold off for another ten minutes, just long enough for her to get inside.

But luck was not on her side today. The minute the though crossed her mind, heavy raindrops started to fall and within minutes she was soaked to the bone and chilled all the way down to her toes. Casey pulled her thin sweater tighter around her shoulders to fight the cold and quickened her pace. She was only a block away from home now and it wouldn't be much longer until she was inside and starting to warm up.

She got to the front door of her apartment building and pulled the door open, relishing the gust of warm, dry air that hit her as she walked inside. She paused just in front of the step leading to her floor to ring out her clothing as much as possible and shake the rain water from her hair, letting it fall in wet tendrils that plastered themselves to her face.

Casey sighed in exhaustion. She was almost home. She was just thirteen steps away. Thirteen steps away from the best part of her day. It seemed like such a small hurdle for her to get over now and just like that she was turning the knob to her front door.

What she saw was a sight for sore eyes. She dropped her backpack to the floor next to their couch and turned to take in everything Derek had done. Their kitchen table had been draped in a table cloth, a vase with a single red rose adorned the center of the table with a tall taper candle flickering on either side. The table had been set for two.

"You like?" Asked Derek, from his position in front of the stove. Casey could see that he was stirring something on the stove. And it smelled delicious, the aroma of tomato sauce and spices reached her. Her stomach growled as she realized just how hungry she was.

"I love you." Replied Casey simply, already crossing the short distance from the front door to the kitchen, kissing Derek to show him just how much she liked it.

"You're soaking." He realized as her wet hair dripped onto his shirt. "And you're shivering."

"Rain." Explained Casey, gratefully accepting the mug of steaming hot tea that Derek somehow managed to produce from nowhere, leading her to believe that he knew it was raining out and that she'd be freezing when she came home.

"Go put on something warm and then we'll eat." Said Derek as he gestured to the timer that indicated the pasta had to cook for another minute and a half.

"Thank you." Casey kissed him one more time before going into their room to change into the much needed warm clothing.

Later that night, once the late dinner was eaten and Casey was curled up next to Derek on the couch, she sighed with contentment. It didn't get much better than this, what she had right now. If anyone asked her where her favorite place was, she'd be able to say without a doubt that it was curled up next to Derek on their couch with her favorite fleece blanket covering them.

"What did I do to deserve all of this?" Casey wondered.

"You're you." Said Derek simply, planting a kiss on the top of her head. "Don't you know that the best part of my day is when you walk in through that door?"

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Big thanks to my new beta McChanged!


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